Consulting business startup challenges

Consulting business startups face many challenges in the early days. As a startup, your consulting business may not have any clients, brand equity, contacts, cash flow or even business cards! Weaving your way through the startup obstacle course can be trying — to say the least.

When I started my consulting business, I was full of confidence, but not much else. I had to learn about taxes, bookkeeping, invoices, contracts and other business basics. I had a good grasp of starting and marketing my business, but I was suddenly faced with managing client politics, chasing unpaid bills, taking debtors to small claims court, and dealing with "non-consulting" aspects of my consulting business. Early on, I’d expected to spend my time on pure consulting. I soon realized just how complex a "simple" home-based business like consulting can be.

All these years later, I’m pleased to say I’m still consulting. And that should serve as encouragement to anyone else who wants to become a consultant — or simply continue to survive as one. You see, although I had a steep learning curve in becoming a consultant, I managed to get to the top of that curve. Of course, there was another curve after that, but it wasn’t quite as steep. Making it over the early hurdles is harder than anything else you’ll face in your consulting career. But, if you stick with it, you’ll get there.